French country sourdough — wheat plus 10-25% rye, large rustic miche, naturally leavened. The everyday French loaf before baguettes took over.
The pre-industrial French village loaf, 2-4 kg, baked once a week in a communal oven. Pierre Poilâne founded the Cherche-Midi bakery in Paris in 1932; his son Lionel Poilâne took over in 1970 and canonized the modern miche, building it into the global reference; the 1.9 kg stone-baked round became the global reference and now ships to 30 countries.
Poilâne's miche weighs exactly 1.9 kg, scored with a P initial that's been the bakery's signature since 1932. The wood-fired oven at rue du Cherche-Midi runs at 250°C and bakes 400 loaves a day in three rotating shifts.
Thick floured crust scored in a wheat-sheaf or square pattern, dense-but-open crumb, faint rye tang under wheat sweetness. Stays good four days wrapped in linen — the rye holds water. Cut wedge by wedge, never sliced loaf-style.
Levain at 25-30% baker's percentage, not commercial yeast — the rye fraction kicks fermentation harder and adds the brown sugar note. Bulk 4-5h at room temp, shape, retard 12-16h at 39°F, bake at 480°F with steam on a stone or steel.
Variations
Poilâne miche (1.9 kg, P-scored, T80 stone-ground wheat + rye); Tartine country loaf (Robertson's 75% hydration adaptation); Pain Bouillon (1900s working-class Paris version, denser); Pain de Beaucaire (Languedoc, two-stack split-top form).
On the Palate
Where Pain de Campagne sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10How it's made
6 steps · 10 min active + 1 day 1 hour waiting
- 160 min
Refresh starter; mix with 600 g wheat flour + 200 g rye flour + 600 ml water; autolyse 1 hr.
- 210 min
Add 150 g starter + 18 g salt; knead to medium gluten.
- 3240 min
Bulk ferment 4 hr with stretch-and-folds every hour.
Watch outStop the bulk when the dough is jiggly and domed with a few surface bubbles and about half again as big — pushed too far it goes slack and won't hold a shape.
- 4900 min
Shape into a 1.5 kg miche; cold-proof 12–18 hr in banneton.
Watch outCold-proof in the banneton until a poked dimple springs back slowly and only partway — springs back fast means underproofed, stays sunk means over.
- 560 min
Score with deep cross; bake 240 °C with steam 45 min then 220 °C 15 min.
Watch outScore deep and fast in one stroke, then trap steam the first stretch — that's what lets the cut burst open and the crust snap instead of staying pale.
- 6240 min
Cool 4 hr before slicing.
Watch outWait the full cool before cutting — slice it warm and the still-setting crumb smears gummy under the knife.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
